Madonna

ARTICLES ABOUT MADONNA BY DATE - PAGE 2

Report: Paula Abdul's return to 'American Idol' doubtful Paula Abdul's new manager says she may not be returning to American Idol. According to a Los Angeles Times report, David Sonenberg says he doesn't have a proposal for a new contract for Abdul. He says it doesn't appear she'll be back. Sonenberg began representing Abdul a few weeks ago. Auditions for the ninth season of the highly rated Fox talent competition begin next month. Abdul said recently that she'd been invited to remain as an American Idol judge and was optimistic about negotiating a new contract.

No longer cherished: Madonna, Ritchie split Madonna and filmmaker Guy Ritchie will end their marriage after nearly eight years, the couple said in a joint statement yesterday. The couple asked the media to "maintain respect for their family at this difficult time," said the statement, e-mailed to the Associated Press by Liz Rosenberg, Madonna's publicist. A financial settlement has not been agreed upon by the couple, who must also decide child-custody issues. Madonna and Ritchie married in December 2000 at a Scottish castle.

Madonna kicks off tour, and gets a bit political Even at 50, the queen of pop just can't stop courting controversy. As Madonna kicked off her international "Sticky and Sweet" tour Saturday night in Wales, she took a none-too subtle swipe at the presumptive Republican nominee for U.S. president. Amid a four-act show at Cardiff's packed Millennium Stadium, a video interlude carried images of destruction, global warming, Nazi dictator Adolf Hitler, Zimbabwe's authoritarian President Robert Mugabe - and U.S. Senator John McCain.

UNTIL YOU'VE lost your reputation, you never realize what a burden it was or what freedom really is," said the great Gone with the Wind writer Margaret Mitchell. I wonder how "free" John Edwards is feeling these days? If Edwards thought by breaking his story of infidelity late Friday, as the Olympic Games began, that he'd soften the blow, he was greatly mistaken. The scandal grows, and the editors and reporters of the National Enquirer - who are now treated like Woodward and Bernstein by an embarrassed mainstream media - are smugly confident that there is oh-so-much more to reveal.

SOME WEEKS ago when word broke that Christopher Ciccone was about to publish a book about his sister, Madonna, I wrote that I hoped Christopher would not use the word "catharsis" as the reason he did it. I hoped in vain. On the very first page, in the introduction of Life With My Sister Madonna, Christopher writes "it has been a catharsis." Give me a break. Catharsis is for a therapist's couch. Bitter tell-alls are written for money and revenge. The sad thing about this book is that it is so ... boring.

WHERE'S MADGE? So Madonna isn't singing the national anthem, but that doesn't mean she might not be somewhere in Yankee Stadium tonight. If her Kabbalah buddy, Alex Rodriquez, left her tickets, what name do you think he'd choose? Blond woman with a girl in tow walks up the the will-call windows. "Two for Breathless Mahoney, please," Ticket clerk shakes his head no. "How about for Eva Peron?" He hands her a pair of tickets. "Sorry, ma'am, but they're in the upper deck," That's OK," she says, "don't cry for me. NO LONGER INVITED All of a sudden, Bud Selig decides this rule about having an All-Star from every team is just silly.